Italy,
officially the Italian Republic or Repubblica
Italiana, is a Southern European country. It
comprises the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and
the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily
and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot and for this
reason Italians commonly call it lo Stivale
("the boot") or, due to its prevalent
peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola
("the Peninsula"). [1]

Italy
shares its northern alpine boundary with France,
Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent
countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are
enclaves within Italian territory. Campione d'Italia is
an Italian enclave in Switzerland.

Italy
was home to many well-known and influential European
civilizations, including the Etruscans, Greeks
and the Romans. For more than 3,000 years Italy
experienced migrations and invasions from Germanic,
Celtic, Frankish, Lombard, Byzantine Greek, Saracen,
Norman, and Angevin peoples, and was divided into many
independent states until 1861 when Italy became a
nation-state.

Italy
is called "il Belpaese" (Italian for beautiful
country) by its inhabitants, due to the beauty and
variety of its landscapes and for having the world's
largest artistic patrimony; the country is home to the
greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (41 as of
July 13,
2006).

Today,
Italy is a highly developed country with the 7th highest
GDP in 2006, a member of the G8
and a founding member of what is now the European Union,
having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Inhabitants of
Italy are referred to as Italians (Italian: Italiani
or poetically Italici).

History

The
word Italy derives from the Homeric (Aeolic) word
ιταλός [2],
which means "bull". Excavations throughout
Italy have found proof of people in Italy dating back to
the Palaeolithic period (the "Old Stone Age")
some 200,000 years ago. The first Greek settlers, who
arrived in Italy from Euboea island the 8th century BC,
possibly named their new land "land of bulls".

Italy
has influenced the cultural and social development of
the whole Mediterranean area, deeply influencing
European culture as well. As a result, it has also
influenced other important cultures. Such cultures and
civilisations have existed there since prehistoric
times. After Magna Graecia, the Etruscan civilisation
and especially the Roman Republic and Empire that
dominated this part of the world for many centuries,
Italy was central to European science and art during the
Renaissance.

Roman
Colosseum enduring symbol of Italy

Center
of the Roman civilisation for centuries, Italy lost its
unity after the collapse of the Roman Empire and
subsequent barbaric invasions. Briefly reunited under
Byzantium (552), was occupied by the Longobards in 568,
resulting in the peninsula becoming irreparably divided.
For centuries the country was the prey of different
populations, resulting in its ultimate decadence and
misery. Most of the population fled from cities to take
refuge in the countryside under the protection of
powerful feudal lords. After the Longobards came the
Franks (774). Italy became part of the Holy Roman
Empire, later to become the Holy Roman Germanic Empire.
Pippin the Short created the first nucleus of the State
of the Vatican, which later became a strong
countervailing force against any unification of the
country.

Population
and economy started slowly to pick up after 1000, with
the resurgence of cities, trade, arts and literature.
During the later Middle Ages the fragmentation of the
peninsula, especially in the northern and central parts
of the country, continued, while the southern part, with
Naples, Apulia and Sicily, remained under a single
domination. Venice created a powerful commercial empire
in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and Black
Sea.

The
Black Death in 1348 inflicted a terrible blow to Italy,
resulting in one third of the population killed by the
disease. The recovery from the disaster led to a new
resurgence of cities, trade and economy which greatly
stimulated the successive phase of the Humanism and
Renaissance (XV-XVI) when Italy again returned to be the
center of Western civilisation, strongly influencing the
other European countries.

After
a century where the fragmented system of Italian states
and principalities were able to maintain a relative
independence and a balance of power in the peninsula, in
1494 the French king Charles VIII opened the first of a
series of invasions, lasting half of the 16th century,
and a competition between France and Spain for the
possession of the country. Ultimately Spain prevailed
(the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559 recognized the
Spanish possession of the Kingdom of Naples) and for
almost two centuries became the hegemon in Italy. The
holy alliance between reactionary Catholic Spain and the
Holy See resulted in the systematic persecution of any
protestant movement, with the result that Italy remained
a Catholic country with marginal protestant presence.
The Spanish domination and the control of the Church
resulted in intellectual stagnation and economic
decadence, also attributable to the shifting of the main
commercial routes from the Mediterranean to the
Atlantic.

Austria
succeeded Spain as hegemon in Italy after the Peace of
Utrecht (1713), having acquired the State of Milan and
the Kingdom of Naples. The Austrian domination, thanks
also to the Illuminism embraced by Absburgic emperors,
was a considerable improvement upon the Spanish one. The
northern part of Italy, under the direct control of
Vienna, again recovered economic dynamism and
intellectual fervor, improved its situation.

The
French Revolution and the Napoleonic
War (1796-1851) introduced the modern ideas of
equality, democracy, law and nation. The peninsula was
not a main battle field as in the past but Napoleon
changed completely its political map, destroying in 1799
the Republic of Venice, which never recovered its
independence. The states founded by Napoleon with the
support of minority groups of Italian patriots were
short-lived and did not survive the defeat of the French
Emperor in 1815.

The
Restoration had all the pre-Revolution states restored
with the exception of the Republic of Venice (forthwith
under Austrian control) and the Republic of Genoa (under
Savoy domination). Napoleon had nevertheless the merit
to give birth to the first national movement for unity
and independence. Albeit formed by small groups with
almost no contact with the masses, the Italian patriots
and liberals staged several uprisings in the decades up
to 1860. Mazzini and Garibaldi were the mosteconomic
reform for the impoverished masses. From 1848 onwards
the Italian patriots were openly supported by Vittorio
Emanuele II, the king of Sardinia, who put his arms in
the Italian tricolor dedicating the House of Savoy to
the Italian unity.

Garibaldi
and Vittorio Emanuele II first King of Italy

The
unification of Italy was obtained on March 17, 1861,
after a successful war (the Second War of Independence)
against Austria with the support of France, and after
Giuseppe Garibaldi organized an invasion of the Kingdom
of Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily) in 1860. Vittorio
Emanuele II became the first king of the united Italy.
The national territory was enlarged to Veneto and Venice
in 1866 after the third War of Independence, fought by
allied Italy and Prussia against Austria. Rome itself
remained for a little less than a decade under the
Papacy thanks to French protection, and became part of
the Kingdom of Italy on September 20, 1870, after
Italian troops stormed the city.

The
first unified state was plagued by a gruesome rebellion
of the Southern populations opposed to the new
domination, by economic stagnation, misery, illiteracy
and a weak national consciousness. Italian was spoken by
a small part of the population while the rest spoke
local dialects.

In
1878 Umberto I succeeded his father Vittorio Emanuele II
as King of Italy. He was killed by an anarchist in 1900
and succeeded by his son Vittorio Emanuele III.

Industrialisation
and modernisation, at least in the northern part of the
country, started in the last part of the 19th century
under a protectionist regime. The south, in the
meanwhile, stagnated under overpopulation and
underdevelopment, so forcing millions of people to
search for employment and better conditions of life
abroad. This lasted until 1970. It is calculated that
more than 26 million Italians migrated to France,
Germany, Switzerland, United States, Argentina, Brazil
and Australia.

Democracy
moved its first steps at the beginning of the 20th
century. The 1848 Constitution provided for basic
freedoms but the electoral laws excluded the disposed
and the uneducated from voting. Only in 1913 the male
universal suffrage was allowed. The Socialist Party
resulted the main political party, outclassing the
traditional liberal and conservative organizations. The
path to a modern liberal democracy was interrupted by
the tragedy of the First
World War (1915-18), which Italy fought along with
France and Great Britain. Italy was able to beat the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire in November 1918. It obtained
Trento and Trieste and few territories on the Dalmatian
coast (Zara) and was considered a great power, but the
population had to pay a heavy human and social price.
The war produced more than 600,000 dead, inflation and
unemployment, economic and political instability, which
in the end favoured the fascist movement to reach power
in 1922 with the tacit support of King Vittorio Emanuele
III who feared civil war and revolution.

The
fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini lasted from
1922 to 1943 but in the first years Mussolini maintained
the appearance of a liberal democracy. After rigged
elections in 1924 gave to Fascism and its conservative
allies an absolute majority in the Parliament, Mussolini
cancelled all democratic liberties on 3 January 1925. He
then proceeded to establish a totalitarian state,
imposing the control of the state upon all single social
and political activity. Political parties were banned,
independent trade unions were closed. The only permitted
party was the National Fascist Party. A secret police (OVRA)
and a system of quasi-legal repression (Tribunale
Speciale) ensured the total control of the regime upon
Italians who, in their majority, either resigned or
welcomed the dictatorship, many considering it a last
resort to stop the spread of communism. While relatively
benign in comparison with Nazi Germany or Stalinist
Russia, several thousands people were incarcerated or
exiled for their opposition and several dozens were
killed by fascist thugs (Carlo Rosselli) or died in
prison (Antonio Gramsci). Mussolini tried to spread his
authoritarian ideology to other European countries and
dictators such as Salazar in Portugal, Franco in Spain
and Hitler
in Germany were heavily influenced by the Italian
examples. Conservative but democratic leaders in Great
Britain and United States were at the beginning
favourable to Mussolini. Mussolini tried, albeit
unsuccessfully, to spread fascism amongst the millions
on Italians living abroad.

Benito
Mussolini Prime Minister of Italy

leader
of the Fascist Party

In
1929 Mussolini realised a pact with the Holy See,
resulting in the rebirth of an independent state of the
Vatican for the Catholic Church in the heart of Rome. In
1935 he declared war on Ethiopia on a pretext. Ethiopia
was subjugated in few months. This resulted in the
alienation of Italy from its traditional allies, France
and Great Britain, and its nearing to Nazi Germany. A
first pact with Germany was concluded in 1936 and then
in 1938 (the Iron Pact). Italy supported Franco's
revolution in Spanish civil war and Hitler's pretensions
in central Europe, accepting the annexation of Austria
to Germany in 1938, although the disappearance of a
buffer state between mighty Germany and Italy was
unfavourable for the country. In October 1938 Mussolini
managed to avoid the eruption of another war in Europe,
bringing together Great Britain, France and Germany at
the expense of Czechoslovakia's integrity.

In
April 1939 Italy occupied Albania, a de-facto
protectorate for decades, but in September 1939, after
the invasion of Poland, Mussolini wisely decided not to
intervene on Germany's side, due to the poor preparation
of the armed forces. Italy entered in war in June 1940
when France was almost defeated. Mussolini hoped for a
quick victory but Italy showed from the very beginning
the poor nature of its army and the scarce ability of
its generals. Italy invaded Greece in October 1940 via
Albania but after a few days was forced to withdraw.
After conquering British Somalia in 1940, a
counter-attack by the Allies led to the loss of the
whole Italian empire in the Horn of Africa. Italy was
also defeated in Northern Africa and saved only by the
German armed forces led by Rommel.

After
several defeats, Italy was invaded in May 1943. In July
1943 King Vittorio Emanuele III staged a coup d'etat
against Mussolini, having him arrested. In September
1943 Italy surrendered. It was immediately invaded by
Germany and for nearly two years the country was divided
and became a battlefield. The Nazi-occupied part of the
country, where a puppet fascist state under Mussolini
was reconstituted, was the theatre of a savage civil war
between freedom fighters ("partigiani")
and Nazi and fascist troops. The country was liberated
by a national uprising on 25 April, 1945 (the Liberazione).

Particularly
in the north agitation against the king ran high,
leftwing and communist armed partisans wanting to depose
him as being responsible for the fascist regime.
Vittorio Emanuele gave up the throne to his son Umberto
II who again faced the possibility of civil war. Italy
became a Republic after the result of a popular
referendum held on 2 June 1946, a day since then
celebrated as Republic Day. The republic won with a 9%
margin; the north of Italy voted prevalently for a
republic, the south for the monarchy. The Republican
Constitution was approved and entered into force on 1
January 1948, including a provisional measure banning
all male members of the house of Savoy from Italy. This
stipulation was redressed in 2002.

Since
then Italy has experienced a strong economic growth,
particularly in the 50s and 60s, while lifted the
country among the most industrialized nations in the
world, with a perennial political instability. The
Christian Democratic Party and its liberal and social
democratic allies ruled Italy without interruptions from
1948 until 1994, marginalising the main opposition
party, the Italian Communist Party, until the end of the
cold war.

In
1992-94 a series of scandals (nicknamed "Tangentopoli")
and the ensuing Mani pulite investigation
destroyed the post-war political system. New parties and
coalition emerged: on the right, Forza Italia of
the media-mogul Silvio Berlusconi is the main successor
of the Christian Democrat party. On the left the Democratici
di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left) are the moderate
successor of the Communist Party, while the most liberal
and progressive Catholic politicians belong to La
Margherita (the Daisy). In 1994 Silvio Berlusconi's
Forza Italia and its allies (National Alliance and the
Northern League) won the elections but the government
collapsed after only a few months because the Northern
League split out. A technical government cabinet led by
Lamberto Dini, supported by the left-wing parties and
the Northern League, lasted until Romano Prodi's new
center-left coalition won the 1996 general election. In
2001 the center-right took the government and Berlusconi
was able to remain in power for a complete five year
mandate. The last elections in 2006 returned Prodi in
the government with a slim majority.

Italy
is a founding member of the European Community, European
Union and NATO.

Giorgio
Napolitano, President Italian Republic

elected
on May 10, 2006

Politics

The
1948 Constitution of Italy established a bicameral
parliament (Parlamento), consisting of a Chamber
of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) and a Senate (Senato
della Repubblica), a separate judiciary, and an
executive branch composed of a Council of Ministers
(cabinet) (Consiglio dei ministri), headed by the
prime minister (Presidente del consiglio dei ministri).

The
President of the Republic (Presidente della
Repubblica) is elected for seven years by the
parliament sitting jointly with a small number of
regional delegates. The president nominates the prime
minister, who proposes the other ministers (formally
named by the president). The Council of Ministers must
retain the support (fiducia) of both houses.

The
houses of parliament are popularly and directly elected
through a complex electoral system (latest amendment in
2005) which combines proportional representation with a
majority prize for the largest coalition (Chamber). The
electoral system in the Senate is based upon regional
representation. In fact in 2006 elections the two
competing coalitions were separated by few thousand
votes, and in the Chamber the Center-left coalition (L'Ulivo)
got 345 Deputies against 277 for the Center-right one
(Casa delle Libertà), while in the Senate l'Ulivo got
only two Senators more than absolute majority. The
Chamber of Deputies has 630 members, the Senate 315
elected senators; in addition, the Senate includes
former presidents and other persons (no more than five)
appointed senators for life by the President of the
Republic according to special constitutional provisions.
As of 15 May 2006, there are seven life senators (of
which three are former Presidents). Both houses are
elected for a maximum of five years, but both may be
dissolved by the President of the Republic before the
expiration of their normal term if the Parliament is
unable to elect a stable government.

In
the post war history, that happened in 1972, 1976, 1979,
1983, 1994 and 1996. A peculiarity of the Italian
Parliament is the representation given to Italians
permanently living abroad (more than 2 million). Among
the 630 Deputies and the 315 Senators there are
respectively 12 and 6 elected in four distinct foreign
constituencies. Those members of Parliament were elected
for the first time in April 2006 and they enjoy the same
rights as members elected in Italy. Legislative bills
may originate in either house and must be passed by a
majority in both. The Italian judicial system is based
on Roman law modified by the Napoleonic code and later
statutes. A constitutional court, the Corte
Costituzionale, passes on the constitutionality of
laws, and is a post-World War II innovation.

All
Italian citizens older than 18 can vote. However, to
vote for the senate, the voter must be at least 25 or
older.

Italy
- Administrative divisions

Administrative
divisions

Italy
is subdivided into 20 regions (regioni, singular regione).
Five of these regions enjoy a special autonomous status
that enables them to enact legislation on some of their
specific local matters, and are marked by an *:

Abruzzo
(with capital L'Aquila)

Basilicata
(Potenza)

Calabria
(Catanzaro)

Campania
(Naples, Napoli)

Emilia-Romagna
(Bologna)

Friuli-Venezia
Giulia* (Trieste)

Latium,
Lazio (Rome, Roma)

Liguria
(Genoa, Genova)

Lombardy,
Lombardia (Milan, Milano)

Marches,
Marche (Ancona)

Molise
(Campobasso)

Piedmont,
Piemonte (Turin, Torino)

Apulia,
Puglia (Bari)

Sardinia*,
Sardegna (Cagliari)

Aosta
Valley*, Valle d'Aosta / Vallée d'Aoste (Aosta,
Aoste)

Tuscany,
Toscana (Florence, Firenze)

Trentino-South
Tyrol*, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol (Trento,
Bolzano)

Umbria
(Perugia)

Sicily*,
Sicilia (Palermo)

Veneto
(Venice, Venezia)

All
regions except the Aosta Valley are further subdivided
into two or more provinces.

Geography

Italy
consists predominantly of a large peninsula (the Italian
Peninsula) with a distinctive boot shape that extends
into the Mediterranean Sea, where together with its two
main islands Sicily and Sardinia it creates distinct
bodies of water, such as the Adriatic Sea to the
north-east, the Ionian Sea to the south-east, the
Tyrrhenian Sea to the south-west and finally the
Ligurian Sea to the north-west.

The
Apennine mountains form the backbone of this peninsula,
leading north-west to where they join the Alps, the
mountain range that then forms an arc enclosing Italy
from the north. Here is also found a large alluvial
plain, the Po-Venetian plain, drained by the Po River
— which is Italy's biggest river with 652 km — and
its many tributaries flowing down from the Alps (Dora
Baltea, 160 km, Sesia, 138 km, Ticino, 248 km, Adda, 313
km, Oglio, 280 km, Mincio), 194 km, and Apennines (Tanaro,
276 km, Trebbia, 115 km, Taro, 115 km, Secchia, 172 km,
Panaro, 148 km).

Its
highest point is Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) at
4,810 metres (15,781 feet). Italy is more typically
associated with two famous volcanoes:
the currently dormant Vesuvius near Naples and the very
active Etna on Sicily.

Sicily
and Sardinia are the two major islands of Italy.

Climate

The
Italian climate is unique and can be far from the
stereotype of a "land of sun.", depending on
the region.

In
fact the north of Italy (Turin, Milan, and Bologna) has
a true continental climate, while below Florence it
becomes more and more Mediterranean.

The
climate of the coastal areas of the Peninsula is very
different from that of the interior, particularly during
the winter months. The higher areas are cold, wet, and
often snowy. The coastal regions, where most of the
large towns are located, have a typical Mediterranean
climate with mild winters and hot and generally dry
summers. The length and intensity of the summer dry
season increases southwards (compare the tables for
Rome, Naples, and Brindisi).

Mont
Blanc - highest mountain in Italy and Western Europe

Between
north and south there is a quite remarkable difference
in the temperatures, above all during the winter: in
some days of December or January it can snow in Milan by
-2°C while Palermo or Naples have just clouds and +17°C.
In some morning Turin can be by -12°C while on the same
time Rome has got +6°C and Reggio Calabria +12°C. In
the summer the difference is lighter. (‘‘See how Po
valley can be frosty in winter [3])

The
east coast of the peninsula is not as wet as the west
coast, but during winter is usually colder. The east
coast north of Pescara is occasionally affected by the
cold bora winds in winter and spring, but the wind is
less strong here than around Trieste. During these
frosty spells from E-NE cities like Rimini, Ancona,
Pescara and the entire eastern hillside of the Apennines
can be affected by true "blizzards". The town
of Fabriano, located just around 300 mt a.s.l., can
often see 50/60 cm of fresh snow fall in 24 hours during
these episodes.

Italy
is subject to highly diverse weather conditions in
autumn, winter, and spring, while summer is usually more
stable, even if in the north cities like Turin, Milan,
Brescia, Verona or Udine sees a lot of thunderstorms in
the afternoon/night hours. So, while below Florence the
summer is typically dry and sunny, in the north is quite
cloudier and relatively rich of rain, even if a little
muggy/sultry.

The
least number of rainy days and the highest number of
hours of sunshine occur in the extreme south of the
mainland and in Sicily and Sardinia. Here sunshine
averages from four to five hours a day in winter and up
to ten or eleven hours in summer. In the north the
precipitations are quite well distributed during the
year, and so the amount of them, even if generally there
is a "minimum" in winter. Between November and
March the Po valley is often covered by tight fog, above
all the central zone (Pavia, Cremona, and Mantua). Snow
is quite a common thing between early December and mid
February in cities like Turin, Milan and Bologna. In the
last winter (2005-2006) Milan received around 75/80cm of
fresh snow, Como around 100cm, Brescia 50cm, Trento 160
cm, Vicenza around 45cm, Bologna around 30cm, Piacenza
around 80 cm. (see the late January 2006 snowfall of
Bergamo [4])

Generally,
the hottest month is August in the south and July in the
north; during these months the thermometer can reach 38°C/42°C
in the south and 33°C/35°C in the north. The coldest
month is January; Po valley's average temperature is
around 0°C, Florence 5°C/6°C, Rome 7°C/8°C, Naples
9°C, Palermo 13°C.

Winter
morning lows can occasionally reach -14°C in Po valley,
-5°C/-6°C in Florence, -4°C in Rome, -2°C in Naples
and 1°C in Palermo.

The
record low (near the sea level) was -28.8°C recorded
during January 1985 near Bologna, while in the south
cities like Catania, Lecce or Alghero had highs till 46°C/47°C
in some hot summers.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian: Torre pendente di Pisa) or simply the Tower of Pisa
(Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa, known worldwide for its unintended tilt to one side. It is situated behind the Cathedral and is the third oldest structure in Pisa's Cathedral Square (Piazza del
Duomo) after the Cathedral and the Baptistry. The tower's tilt began during construction, caused by an inadequate foundation on ground too soft on one side to properly support the structure's weight. The tilt increased in the decades before the structure was completed, and gradually increased until the structure was stabilized (and the tilt partially corrected) by efforts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The height of the tower is 55.86 metres (183.27 feet) from the ground on the low side and 56.67 metres (185.93 feet) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 2.44 m (8 ft 0.06 in). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons (16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees, but the tower now leans at about 3.99 degrees. This means that the top of the tower is displaced horizontally 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) from where it would be if the structure were perfectly vertical.

Demographics

Italy
is largely homogeneous in language and religion but is
diverse culturally, economically, and politically. The
country has the fifth-highest population density in
Europe at 193 persons per square kilometre (499/sq. mi).
However, like Germany, Italy's main population centers
fall among several cities, mainly Turin, Rome, Milan,
and Naples, with no single large city to rival the size
of cities such as London, Paris or Moscow. As with many
other nations in Europe, Italy is currently facing a
natural population decline, supplemented only by
immigration. Italy receives roughly 300,000 immigrants a
year, second only to the United States. Population
estimates place Italy's population at roughly 41 million
in 2050 if the current population trend continues.

Since
the beginning of Roman civilisation, important ethnic
groups like Greek settlers, Germanic and Celtic invaders
and plunderers, and Norman French colonisers have all
left important impressions on the people today.

The
number of immigrants or foreign residents in Italy has
steadily increased to reach 2,402,157, according to the
latest figures (1/2005) of ISTAT. They currently make up
a little more than 4% of the official total population.
The majority of immigrants in Italy come from other
surrounding European nations, and they number 1,122,276,
and chiefly come from Albania, Romania, the Ukraine, and
Poland. French nationals living in Italy, according to
ISTAT figures, are more commonly women than men. The
next largest group consists of North African Arab
groups, and they number some 447,310 chiefly from
Morocco, and Tunisia. Smaller groups consists of Asians,
South Americans, and sub-saharan Africans. Top 5 largest
foreign minorities are Albanian (316,659), Moroccan
(294,945), Romanian (248,849), Chinese (111,712), and
Ukrainian (93,441).

Italian
City Provinces, Urban Areas and Metropolitan Areas:

Milan
(Milano, Lombardia): 3,869,037 - 4.240.000 -
6.500.000

Rome
(Roma, Lazio): 3,831,959 - 3,831,959 - 3,831,959.

Naples
(Napoli, Campania): 3,086,622 - 3.800.000 -
4.150.000

Turin
(Torino, Piemonte): 2,242,775 - 2,242,775 -
2,242,775

Religion

Roman
Catholicism is by far the largest religion in the
country. Although the Catholic Church has never been the
state religion, it still plays a role in the nation's
political affairs, partly due to the Holy See's location
in Rome. In a 2005 poll 87.8%[5]
of Italians identified as Roman Catholic, although only
about one-third of these described themselves active
members (36.8%).

In
the past two decades, Italy has been receiving many
waves of immigrants from all over the world, especially
eastern Europe and North Africa. As a result some
825,000 Muslims (1.4%), of which only 50,000 are
Italian citizens, live in Italy, as well as 100,000
Buddhists [11],
[12]
and [13],
and 70,000 Hindus.

Economy

According
to GDP calculations, as measured by purchasing power
parity (PPP), Italy is ranked as the 8th largest economy
in the world in 2006, behind the United States, Japan,
Germany, China, India, UK, and France, and the fourth
largest in Europe. According to the OECD, in 2004 Italy
was the world's sixth-largest exporter of manufactured
goods. This capitalistic economy remains divided into a
developed industrial north, dominated by private
companies, and a less developed agricultural south.
Italy's economy has deceptive strength because it is
supported by a substantial “underground” economy
that functions outside government controls.

Most
new materials needed by industry and more than 75% of
energy requirements are imported. Over the past decade,
Italy has pursued a tight fiscal policy in order to meet
the requirements of the Economic and Monetary Union and
has benefited from lower interest and inflation rates.
Italy joined the Euro from its conception in 1999.

Italy's
economic performance has at times lagged behind that of
its EU partners, and the current government has enacted
numerous short-term reforms aimed at improving
competitiveness and long-term growth. It has moved
slowly, however, on implementing certain structural
reforms favoured by economists, such as lightening the
high tax burden and overhauling Italy's rigid labour
market and expensive pension
system, because of the current economic slowdown and
opposition from labour unions.

Italy
has been less successful in terms of developing world
class multinational corporations. Instead, the country's
main economic strength has been its large base of small
and medium size companies. These companies typically
manufacture products that are technologically moderately
advanced and therefore increasingly face crushing
competition from China and other emerging Asian
economies. Meanwhile, a base of corporations able to
compete in markets for advanced goods and services is
underdeveloped or lacking entirely. It is not obvious
how Italy will overcome this significant structural
weakness in the short run, and Italy has therefore been
referred to as the new "sick man of Europe".[14]

Culture

Italy,
as a state, did not exist until the unification of the
country came to a conclusion in year 1861. Due to this
comparatively late unification, and the historical
autonomy of the many regions that comprise the Italian
Peninsula, many traditions and customs that we now
recognize as distinctly Italian can be identified by
their regions of origin, which further reflect the
influence of the many different peoples that occupied
those areas, and of the importance of religion,
especially Roman Catholicism. Despite the pronounced
political and social isolation of these regions that
prevailed throughout Italy's history, Italy's
contributions to the cultural and historical heritage of
Europe remain immense.

Italy
has been a seminal place for many important artistic and
intellectual movements that spread throughout Europe and
beyond, including the Renaissance and Baroque. Perhaps
Italy's greatest cultural achievements lie in its long
artistic heritage, which is often validated through the
names of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello,
Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Tintoretto, Caravaggio,
Bernini, Titian and Raphael, among many others. Beyond
art, Italy's contributions to the realms of literature,
science and music cannot be overlooked.

With
the basis of the modern Italian language established
through the eminent Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri,
whose greatest work, the Divina Commedia is often
considered the foremost literary statement produced in
Europe during the Middle Ages, there is no shortage of
celebrated literary figures; the writers and poets
Boccaccio, Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Manzoni, Tasso,
Ludovico Ariosto, and Petrarca, whose best known vehicle
of expression, the sonnet, was invented in Italy.
Prominent philosophers include Bruno, Ficino,
Machiavelli, Vico. Modern literary figures and Nobel
laureates are nationalist poet Giosuè Carducci in 1906,
realist writer Grazia Deledda in 1926, modern theatre
author Luigi Pirandello in 1936, poets Salvatore
Quasimodo in 1959 and Eugenio Montale in 1975, satiryst
and theatre author Dario Fo in 1997.

From
folk music to classical, music has always played an
important role in Italian culture. Having given birth to
opera, for example, Italy provides many of the very
foundations of the classical music tradition. Some of
the instruments that are often associated with classical
music, including the piano
and violin, were invented in Italy, and many of the
existing classical music forms can trace their roots
back to innovations of 16th and 17th century Italian
music (such as the symphony, concerto, and sonata). Some
of Italy's most famous composers include the Renaissance
composers Palestrina and Monteverdi, the Baroque
composers Corelli and Vivaldi, the Classical composers
Paganini and Rossini, and the Romantic composers Verdi
and Puccini. Modern Italian composers such as Berio and
Nono proved significant in the development of
experimental and electronic music.

Football
(calcio) is a popular spectator and participation
sport. The Italian national team has won the World
Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006) and is
the current titleholder, while major Italian clubs
frequently compete at a high level of European
competitions. Rugby union is very popular in Italy;
clubs compete domestically in the Super 10, as well as
the European Heineken Cup tournament. The national team
competes in the Six Nations Championship, and is a
regular at the Rugby
World Cup. Italy are classed at a tier-one nation by
the International Rugby Board. Basketball (pallacanestro)
is a sport gaining rapid popularity in Italy, although
national teams have existed since the 1950s. The
nation's top pro league (Lega A1[15])
is widely regarded as the third best national league in
the world after the American NBA and Spain's ACB. In
some cities, basketball is the most popular sport.
Cycling is also a well represented sport in Italy.
Italians have won more World Cycling Championships than
any other country except Belgium. The Giro d'Italia is a
world famous long distance bicycle race held every May
and constitutes one of the three Grand Tours along with
the Tour
de France and the Vuelta a España, each of which
last approximately three weeks. Auto racing receives
much attention in Italy, while the nation is host to a
number of notable automobile racing events, such as the
famed Italian Grand Prix. The Italian flair for design
is legendary, and it should come as no surprise that Ferrari
has won more Formula
Ones than any other manufacturer.[16]

Languages

The
official language of Italy is Standard Italian,
descendant of Tuscan dialect and a direct descendant of
Latin. (Some 75% of Italian words are of Latin origin.)
However, when Italy was unified, in 1861, Italian
existed mainly as a literary language, and was spoken by
less than 3% of the population. Different languages were
spoken throughout Italian peninsula, many of which were
Romance languages which had developed in every region,
due to political fragmentation of Italy. Indeed, each
historical region of Italy had its own so-called
‘dialetto’ (with ‘dialect’ usually meaning,
improperly, a non-Italian Romance language), with
variants existing at the township-level.

Venice,
Italy - Gondolas

Massimo
d'Azeglio. One of Cavour's ministers, is said to have
stated, following Italian unification, that having
created Italy, all that remained was to create Italians.
Given the high number of languages spoken throughout the
peninsula, it was quickly established that 'proper' or
'standard' Italian would be based on the Florentine
dialect spoken in most of Tuscany (given that it was the
first region to produce authors such as Dante Alighieri,
who between 1308 and 1321 wrote the Divina Commedia).
A national education system was established - leading to
a decrease in variation in the languages spoken
throughout the country over time. But it was not until
the 1960s, when economic growth enabled widespread
access to the television programmes of the state
television broadcaster, RAI, that Italian truly became
broadly-known and quite standardised.

Today,
despite regional variations in the form of accents and
vowel emphasis, Italian is fully comprehensible to most
throughout the country. Nevertheless certain local
idioms have become cherished beacons of regional
variation—the Neapolitan which is extensively used for
the singing of popular folk-songs, for instance—and in
recent years many people have developed a particular
pride in their local dialects.

In
addition to the various regional linguistic varieties
and dialects of standard Italian, a number of languages
enjoying some form of official recognition are spoken:

In
the north, the province of South Tyrol (Südtirol
in German, Alto Adige in Italian) is almost
entirely German-speaking; the area was awarded to
Italy following the First World War and her defeat
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Pockets of German
speakers also persist in other north-eastern Italian
regions—a remnant of the old Austrian influence on
this area of Italy. In total some 300,000 or so
Italians speak German as their first language and
indeed many identify themselves as ethnic Austrian
Germans.

Some
120,000 or so people live in the Aosta Valley
region, where a dialect of Franco-Provençal is
spoken that is similar to dialects spoken in France.
About 1,400 people living in two isolated towns in
Foggia speak another dialect of Franco-Provençal.

About
80,000 Slovene-speakers live in the north-eastern
region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia near the border with
Slovenia.

In
the Dolomite mountains of Trentino-South Tyrol and
Veneto there are some 40,000 speakers of the
Rhaetian language Ladin.

A
very large community of some 700,000 people in
Friuli speak Friulian—another Rhaetian language.

In
the Molise region of central-south Italy some 4,000
people speak Serbo-Croatian. These are the Molise
Croats, descendants of a group of people who
migrated from the Balkans in the Middle Ages.

Scattered
across southern Italy (Salento and Calabria) are a
number of some 30,000 Greek-speakers—considered
to be the last surviving traces of the region's
Greek heritage. (Ancient Greek colonists reached
southern Italy and Sicily about 1500 BC.) They speak
a Greek dialect, Griko.

Some
15,000 Catalan speakers reside around the area of
Alghero in the north-west corner of
Sardinia—believed to be the result of a migration
of a large group of Catalans from Barcelona in ages
past.

The
Arbëreshë, of whom there are around 100,000 in
southern Italy and in central Sicily—the result of
past migrations—are speakers of the Arbëresh
dialect of Albanian.

Finally,
the largest group of non-Italian speakers, some 1.6
million people, are those who speak Sardinian, a
Romance language which retains many pre-Latin words.

The
Bluebird World Cup Trophy. This friendship cup is to be
awarded to the winners of the Cannonball
Run International series of zero emission rallies.
It represents the move to sustainable pollution free
transport.

TRANSPORT

Italy
produces some of the finest high performance sports cars
in the world. Ferrari and Lamborghini and many other
exotic makes produce exquisite designs, these days using design
houses such as Bertone and Ital. The country is less
well endowed in terms of sustainable vehicles, and
certainly has few or even no instant recharging stations
to herald the zero
emission ideal.

Fortunately,
Italy has well developed public and private transportation options.
The Italian rail network is extensive, especially in the north, generally eclipsing the need for an alternative such as bus or air (both of which, however, exist to some extent). While a number of private railroads exist and provide mostly commuter-type services, the national railway, Ferrovie dello Stato, also provides sophisticated high-speed rail service that joins the major cities of Italy from Naples through northern cities such as Milan and Turin. Italy has 2507 people and 12.46 km2 (World's seventh) per km of rail track.

Because of its long seacoast, Italy also has a large number of harbors for the transportation of both goods and passengers. Italy has been a seafaring peninsula dating back to the days of the Etruscans and the
Greeks.

Italy's road network is also widespread, with a total length of about 487,700 km. It comprises both an extensive motorway network (6,400 km), mostly toll roads, and national and local roads.

Italy is one of the countries with the most vehicles per capita, with 690 per 1000 people in 2010. Italy has a total of 487,700 km of paved roads, of which 6,700 km are motorways generally with a speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph). The speed limit in towns is usually 50 km/h (31 mph) and less commonly 30 km/h (19 mph).
Because of this it is one of the biggest polluters and
suffers carcinogenic
city smogs.

A
new World series of ZEV events from 2015: The Cannonball International series.
Entry to these events are free, provided that the Rules
are followed (for you own safety). The objective is to demonstrate that
transport can be pollution free.
The Italian inland route is shown above. For this event your target should be about
25 hours with instant
cartridge recharging and 40 hours using rapid charging. The route
statistics below are for the coastal run.